


Animal Behaviour

by RayneSummer



Series: The Android First Aid Chonicals [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, i guess, not sumo he's still a good boy, tw: dog attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-11 16:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15319761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayneSummer/pseuds/RayneSummer
Summary: It would be best just to get home and sort the kid out; as long as Connor was responsive and conscious, it wasn’t an emergency, right? Who knew. Only attacks by people had been covered in their ‘basics’ course, which was admittedly probably a bigger threat.Well, usually. If you weren’t Connor, the android with some goddamn magnet for both trouble and animals. And then managed to find both at the same time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I recently found out I failed the animal behaviour module of my degree, so I decided Connor should also fail his animal negotiator program of his deviant-not-sent-by-Cyberlife composition. Also I absolutely adore dogs but I also respect their ability to fucking maul you.

Hank only minorly regretted allowing Connor to talk him into actual grocery shopping.

To his credit, the kid had only been mildly annoying while actually in the store; he didn’t nag too much about the specific nutritional value of each ingredient Hank picked up, and mostly just managed to disappear into another aisle the second Hank’s back was turned to browse the shelves.

All in all, it could have been a worse trip.

The two headed out of the store and to the car, which was parked neatly on the side of the road only a minute away. It wasn’t like this was a busy area – in fact it was rather obsolete, with a couple of crisp packets blowing in the light wind to add to the deserted feel.

They put the couple of bags into the boot and moved to get back home so Sumo could have his new treats that Connor had specifically picked out based on not only their boasting about healthiness on the packaging, but also because Connor had scanned them and as well as the slogans being mostly true, it was also the best treats out of the ones on offer.

That was what he had tried to explain to Hank anyway, to which the Lieutenant had rolled his eyes and shoved the treats into their basket without listening to the rest of the conversation.

“Oh, shit, hold on,” Hank muttered suddenly as they settled into their respective seats in the vehicle. Connor looked at him expectantly.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

Hank was patting his pockets with a frustrated expression. “Ah, fuck it,” he sighed, glancing at Connor before moving to get out again. “Left my fucking keys on the side.”

The android cocked his head thoughtfully.

“Would you like me to help you look?” He asked, but Hank was already out the car, and if didn’t have exceptional audio processor, he would have missed the yell from a couple of metres away consisting of “just wait there, I’ll be back in a minute!”

Connor nodded to himself, since there was no one around to see, and looked resolutely forward as he slipped the coin out of his pocket and started flipping it between hands without watching.

This worked for a minute – the amount of time Hank had claimed he’d be, though it wasn’t like Connor had thought that was a very accurate estimation and therefore hadn’t taken it literally – before there was a faint sound from outside.

Immediately alert, Connor blinked at his window and waited. Sure enough, the sound came again; it was some kind of rustling and grunting, resonating from a nearby alleyway.

Carefully, he put the coin back into his pocket, straightened his tie, and got out of the car in one fluid motion, then hesitated.

Hank had specifically said to wait ‘there’, by which the man had assumingly meant ‘the car’, but he had also said he’d back ‘back in a minute’, which he had not been. And what if there was trouble? Connor couldn’t just sit in the car as something maybe happened in the alleyway, something he could have prevented if he investigated. As a member of the Detroit Police Department, he ought to check it out.

Coming to a conclusion, Connor adjusted his sleeves, paused again, then began striding purposefully towards the alleyway. He stood at the entrance of it, surveying the scene.

There was no obvious struggling, nor any kind of human or android presence. In fact, there wasn’t much going on at all. The only living thing a scan could detect was a medium sized, mangy-looking dog, who was rustling in a box of trash thrown at the side of the alley.

Connor stood there, considering his options. Now he knew there wasn’t any danger, he could just leave. Path two, he could interact with the dog and find out more about it. What if it was a stray?

Not that he had been lying when he had claimed to like dogs all that time ago, but living with Sumo had helped increase that feeling (as well as generally being a deviant and, obviously, living with Hank in general), so much so that Connor didn’t feel right just leaving this dog in the alleyway without checking it was alright.

Mind made up, he walked slowly towards the animal, hands open and out in front of him to be as non-threatening as possible.

“Hello. My name is Connor,” he introduced himself automatically when he was only a few feet away.

The dog huffed at being interrupted – though no doubt it had been aware of his approach before – and stopped its rummaging in order to face him, narrowing its eyes at the android.

It didn’t feel right referring to the animal as ‘it’, though. Now closer, Connor scanned the dog again, confirming the breed as a mixture of several different ones, but not revealing any more information other than that the gender was in actual fact female.

A good a start as any.

“Hey, girl,” Connor said in a lower voice, crouching down and beginning to reach a hand out towards the brown and black dog. “What are you doing out here?”

She didn’t have a collar or anything, and anyway, there was no owner registered.

The dog started growling. Connor frowned. This was not an ideal escalation, but not entirely unexpected. After all, he, a stranger, had just walked into what could basically be the animal’s home, and started invading her space.

His negotiator program was working to find the best solution, but it was having a little trouble because of the unpredictability of wild animals.

At least, that’s what Connor assumed.

And was also his excuse as to why he tried to reach out further without thinking of the complications that any sudden movement could cause. That and his too-trusting demeanour of dogs based on the experiences of living with gentle giant Sumo.

It was an irrational action. Which was why, in conclusion, it resulted in a less than good solution.

The dog snarled and leapt forward, pushing Connor back and making him lose his balance so he ended up on his back with a dog in his face. Or, the dog would be literally on his face if he hadn’t instinctively raised his arms above him to stop more delicate areas being attacked. As it was, the dog was now growling around its jaw locked on his forearm.

Not the ideal situation.

Its – or, rather, her – teeth were long and sharp from however long she had been scavenging what tough edible things she could find, and now bit deep into Connor’s arm, breaking circuits and tubing that sent error messages to his vision.

New mission: get attacker off body.

To-do list: check degree of damage. Seek repair.

WARNING: moderate Thirium loss detected.

In trying to figure the best way to deescalate the situation – that was, get the dog away and get out of the alley, then fix himself up, in that order – Connor had ignored the small errors that were continually popping up, until a bigger one filled his vision with a warning.

An actual look at the damaged arm, focusing around the dog’s jaw, showed that a rather alarming amount of blue blood was indeed leaking around the wound, dripping steadily onto his jacket.

Negotiating his way out of this one seemed extremely unlikely, but he had to try. He had an entire database around the subject, and he knew that dogs could be reasonable. Well, Sumo could be reasonable. Sometimes.

Okay, maybe this was a little more difficult than originally assumed.

Connor lifted his other hand to try and prise the dog’s jaws apart so she would let go of his arm. Which did actually happen, only it was because the dog then barked loudly and angrily and bit down on his hand, trying to shake the new plaything and growling even deeper.

Pain or not, this was starting to hurt in several ways. Warnings crowded Connor’s head, his arm barely felt like it belonged to him after being ravaged, and receptors in his hand buzzed.

“Dog… please…” He struggled, clumsily trying to push the animal away with a damaged arm, trying to push himself up with his heels.

The dog let go and lunged for his face and neck again. Thankfully, Connor managed to get both arms to work and he blocked the attack, but she just tore at his undamaged arm, though thankfully not doing as much damage.

She jumped backwards and he started trying to scramble up, what could only be described as panic settling in and no help in site. Not that he should even need help in the first place.

He raised a leg to kick at the animal, but hesitated. He did not want to hurt it, even if it did not have the same principals as he did.

Unfortunately, Connor’s hesitance was the dog’s chance – she barked in anger again and jumped at the raised leg, sinking her teeth deep into his shin where there was the audible crack of structure damage and the breaking of wires sent a headache of red warnings to his vision, making Connor actually groan at the overcrowding messages and the situation in general.

Vision filled with errors and also partly fading for some reason, Connor weakly pushed at the animal again, trying to crawl away with increasing fear. He hadn’t expected this, it was wrong, it wasn’t good—

“The fuck?”

A sound from the alley’s entrance made the dog stop. It may be aggressive, but she clearly knew what being outnumbered was. As in, she obviously had enough fear of people that more than one was too many to attack and win. Quite logical, really, Connor considered, feeling somewhat much too calm now.

With a final growl, the dog let go of the android completely and barked as the second intruder quickly approached, before literally turning tail and running away down the alley.

Hank only spared it a glance to make sure it was gone before taking his hand off his gun and turning his attention to the android half-sitting up on the ground, immediately crouching down and trying to stay calm to assess the damage.

“Connor, shit, how- how bad is it? Are you okay?”

He cursed himself for the stupid question – of course the kid wasn’t okay! From what he had gathered from the empty car and loud barks, Connor had gone to investigate this alley dog and had been attacked by it, clearly not wanting to fight back, as fuckin’ usual. But it was a little more justified this time, since even Hank wouldn’t want to hit or shoot a dog. Unless it was mauling his son, of course. Lucky the damn thing had ran away.

More importantly, the priority was Connor. It always was.

“Connor! Talk to me, son,” he urged, reaching out to check the android’s arm first, which seemed to be the most worse for wear.

There was a pause as Connor blinked at the blood dripping steadily on his lap and now also staining Hank’s hands. “I’ve… been better, Lieutenant,” he admitted quietly, warnings still everywhere and head feeling suddenly heavy. “And I apologise for not waiting in the car as you asked.”

Hank just shook his head, which was slightly confusing. Had he not called back to wait in the car? He would have certainly preferred it over this, right?

“Hey.” He snapped his fingers in front of Connor’s face, an expression of worry on his face. “You with me?”

Connor just nodded minutely, then wincing when the simple action aggravated his headache or whatever it was. The Thirium loss was getting to him, he supposed. As the lady in the course had said the other week, it was very similar to losing excess blood in humans.

“The damage is extensive but can be dealt with,” he settled for explaining, his voice sounding like it was fading in and out, at least to him.

“Uh-huh,” Hank muttered, eyeing Connor’s ravaged leg, weighing his options. It would be best just to get home and sort the kid out; as long as Connor was responsive and conscious, it wasn’t an emergency, right? Who knew. Only attacks by people had been covered in their ‘basics’ course, which was admittedly probably a bigger threat.

Well, usually. If you weren’t Connor, the android with some goddamn magnet for both trouble and animals. And then managed to find both at the same time.

He sighed, more to himself, and decided to focus on getting them out of this dank alleyway first - whatever state Connor was in then, they could deal with stuff as it came along until he was fixed up. That was Hank's general motto, if he actually had one.

"Right, you gotta be honest and work with me here, okay?"

Connor watched with as much attention as possible while errors still crowded his head and receptors in his limbs acted up as they tried to identify all the damage. It was difficult to concentrate, but Hank had asked, so he would try.

They managed to get up - or rather, Hank helped Connor up, the android claimed he could stand on his own, and did succeed in doing so for approximately twenty seconds before almost collapsing from a result of trying to stand on a damaged leg and the fact that his head was now extremely fuzzy and he couldn't quite concentrate on the thousands of things that needed his attention.

He tried to prioritise the messages and external stimuli in order to pay attention to the most pressing thing, which at the moment was being half-yelled at.

"Connor! Shit, are you still with me?" Hank cursed again, worry making him panic as he struggled to support most of the android's weight, who seemed suddenly barely conscious. "Fuck. Maybe I should drag you to the closest clinic..."

Interestingly, at this Connor looked up, still unfocused but aware. "No need, Lieutenant," he murmured, trying to stand as well as possible. Hank increased his grip as the kid listed to the side.

He hesitated. "No fuckin' need, sure," He shook his head in despair, wondering if the dumbass would ever have some kind of self-preservation. Although, since they lived together, the chances of that happening now were quite low, since it wasn't like Hank was a great 'self-worth' rolemodel.

Whatever. They could sort that later. Or argue about it or whatever.

"Jericho?" He asked instead as they slowly made their way out of the alley, Hank keeping a tight hold on Connor's better arm draped over his shoulder.

The kid shook his head and hissed an exhale as the movement unsettled his already pounding head. "No need," he repeated faintly, "just... back home, we can deal with it." He took a shaky breath and focused on putting one foot in front of the other as Hank supported him. They made it to the car, which seemed even further away than when walking from the store, and Hank let him lean against it for a moment as it was unlocked.

"This could only happen to you on a trip to the store," Hank was muttering as he helped Connor into the seat. It sounded frustrated, but Connor knew that the source was the situation at large rather than him specifically.

He tried for a shrug in response, but that hurt his arms, so he just held them close to his body and tried to restrict movement as Hank got in the other side and gave him a worried look before starting the engine.

Connor smiled despite the situation. At least Hank had found his keys.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The only bit from the previous work (Crash Course) that's particularly related here is this excerpt:  
> “Blood loss results in similar symptoms as in humans; disorientation, dizziness, paler or clammy skin. If it is not controlled, the android will automatically begin rerouting Thirium to vital biocomponents and will possibly go into standby, or unconsciousness, in order to continue working for longer.”  
> [...]  
> Sarah continued, “The main goal is to stop the person bleeding out, resupply lost Thirium, and seal up the wound if necessary."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how android repair actually works, but I just jumped on the bandwagon that Connor (not sure abt others, but certainly Connor, since he's a prototype or whatever) can mostly self-repair. Though it occurred to me that dog bites are pretty deep, but then I considered that so are gunshots and he can probably repair them, so. Idk, don't take any of this for actual knowledge. Apart from the human-based first aid stuff, that's something I actually know. Or at least I should know. Anyway.

They arrived home approximately ten minutes later, an estimation Connor gathered on the fact that Hank had hit his undamaged shoulder about ten times during the drive, saying things with an underlay of urgency such as “stay awake”, “talk to me”, and “focus on something”.

It had become quite tiring, ironically.

Exhausting enough that Connor hadn’t bothered replying with actual related facts such as androids not ‘sleeping’ or the fact that he could (usually) focus on several things at once and still listen to conversation. Instead, he just settled for blinking open his eyes that kept closing for some reason and responding by straightening up a little and offering a somewhat reassuring statement like “I’m okay”, which, judging by Hank’s disbelieving and frustrated look, was not reassuring nor true at all.

Said Lieutenant immediately got out of the car and when it stopped and got around to Connor’s side before he could barely open his door.

“Come on, kid, let’s get you fixed up,” Hank muttered, grabbing Connor’s least damaged arm to help him out and start walking up the path to their front door. As Hank located the key to unlock and enter the house, Connor glanced at his companion then back at the car.

“Lieutenant—”

“Hank.”

“Hank, we should bring the shopping in, there are several perishable items that need to be stored in the fridge as soon as possible.”

The door clicked open and Hank gave the kid an incredulous look. “Connor, I don’t give a fuck about the shopping. Get the hell in here,” he ordered, grabbing the android’s closest arm again to help move him.

“But—”

“Look, I’ll worry about the fucking shopping when you aren’t bleeding everywhere and looking as though you’re about to pass out or whatever the fuck you do,” he interrupted as they managed to stumble into the front room.

He carefully deposited Connor on the couch and eyed him, thinking. And trying to remember the course from the other week without panicking too much.

It wasn’t too hard to recall the listed symptoms, due to them being similar to a human losing blood.

Disorientation and dizziness – likely, since Connor could barely stand on his own or focus for long during the car ride.

Paler or clammy skin – definitely. And Hank didn’t even want to know how that worked.

Standby or unconsciousness? Certainly close to it, from the look of the kid. He was listing to side even just sitting on the sofa, and blinking as though struggling to stay awake. Shit.

“Okay, tell me what to do. Connor!” Hank snapped his fingers in front of the android’s face instead of hitting him to get his attention. Connor blinked and levelled his unfocused gaze as his friend. “What can I do?” Hank repeated, trying to push down the panic that really wanted to start expressing itself now.

Connor glanced down to assess the damage to his body.

A hasty scan immediately warned him of moderate Thirium loss, which he dismissed in favour of focusing on how extensive the actual damage was. Which wasn’t good.

His ravaged arm was basically broken, cut wiring and tubing fizzing in the wounds that were still leaking at an alarming rate – the bite must have caught a major vessel that did need to be repaired manually. As long as he was conscious, Connor decided he could do that himself, with Hank’s help.

The bitten leg and other arm weren’t as bad, with most of the damage sustained by the outer shell, which was completely broken but protected a majority of the deeper inner workings which would have led to the leg being useless.

And his hand, despite being grabbed and shook, was the least actually damaged, though the puncture wounds were bigger from the movement while being bitten.

It was all fixable. They were right not to go to Jericho. Markus certainly had better things to do.

A cold nose nudging his uninjured leg made Connor jump quite badly, pulled out of his diagnosis not just by the sensation but also by sudden and unmistakable fear as he frantically looked around for the culprit.

“Sumo!” Hank’s bark gave the answer, and when his optical units finally managed to focus, Connor took in the gentle Saint Bernard now laying by his feet, looking up at him with doleful eyes.

“Connor, look at me.”

He tore his gaze from the dog to meet Hank’s, who was apparently crouching in front of him, expression of worry deepening at Connor’s increasing unresponsiveness.

“If you don’t tell me how to help you, I’m taking us straight to Jericho or something, because you’re really starting to freak me out, son. Okay?”

Connor glanced back down at Sumo, trying to convince himself it was fine.

Hank frowned. “I can get Sumo away for now if it helps?” He offered uncertainly. Connor hesitated, then nodded.

“Just for now,” he practically whispered.

Damn emotions. He still loved the gentle boy, but for some stupid reason his processor wouldn’t stop comparing Sumo’s closeness to the other dog. It was nothing like that – they were completely different! Sumo was fine!

But he had to repair himself anyway, so maybe it would be best not to be interrupted for now, he reasoned with himself as he heard Hank shutting Sumo in the bedroom with a reminder to be good, then hurry back to the sofa to hopefully sort Connor out.

“Alright, what do I do?”

Still disorientated, Connor tried nonetheless to take charge of the situation. He definitely didn’t underestimate Hank’s threat to take him elsewhere.

He shifted, grimacing. “The main situation that needs to be dealt with first is the Thirium leak.” He indicated his sparking arm and Hank nodded, concentration on his face. “There is a broken, well, blood vessel, you could say, which will not stop bleeding until it is fixed back together.”

“Okay.” Hank nodded, doing his best to follow and understand, and reached out to gently take the broken arm, carefully pulling up the sleeve. “So what exactly am I looking for?”

Connor squinted at him. “I can do it, you don’t have to—”

“Shut up, kid. Tell me what I’m looking for.”

Hank waited as patiently as he could, only concern behind his words, as he moved his already blue-stained hands to investigate the wound and listen to Connor’s instructions.

“Th- There should be a bigger tube than the others; it isn’t a wire so it should be ob-obvious.”

The way Connor was stuttering didn’t help calm either of them.

Thankfully it doesn’t take long for Hank to assumingly find what he should be looking for – it was still leaking a lot, so aside from the blood, it wasn’t not too hard to identify it – and check in with Connor as to what he should do. The kid had his eyes closed but somewhat calmly explained that Hank should just get the two ends back together and they should fuse after a second.

After that, it was just a matter of cleaning up, making sure everything else was okay, and ensuring that Connor meant it when he claimed his self-repair could fix everything else.

Or at least, that was all that should be left.

“Connor.” Hank shook the android by the shoulder once he had finished on his arm, since his eyes were still closed and he hadn’t made a sound for a while. He didn’t stir. “Shit. Connor?”

There was still no reaction and Hank quashed his panic in favour of noting the LED was still on – albeit swirling red – and remembering that losing too much blood would make anyone fall unconscious sooner or later, and Connor had been fighting it for a while now.

But, with the main injury fixed, and Connor’s word that the rest would follow, Hank decided the best he could do was leave the kid for a minute while he washed up and got some bandages.

Whether or not androids needed to cover their wounds (probably not), it just didn’t feel right to leave a fucking hole with wires poking out.

So, after washing his hands and letting Sumo out of the bedroom with a warning to not jump up on the sofa, Hank searched his bathroom cabinet for some menial first aid supplies. Thankfully, there were a couple of bandages still in their wrappings among the numerous headache tablets, and he grabbed them before turning back to the living room.

Sumo had resumed his brief position at Connor’s feet, laying beside the sofa and looking up at the unresponsive android with liquid eyes.

Hank paused to give the dog a quick pat as he knelt down, reassuring both himself and Sumo as he muttered, “It’ll be okay, boy. He just needs to rest. You’re fine.”

He methodically unwrapped one of the bandages and started winding it around the arm he had treated, carefully pushing any protruding wires into the wound with the pressure of the bandage. He tucked the end of it into previous folds and put Connor’s hand down on his lap before taking the other arm.

Pushing up the sleeve, he had to agree that this one wasn’t as bad; there was still a bite, but it wasn’t so deep and was no longer leaking Thirium like the first one had been. Hank repeated the ministrations before standing up and observing his work.

Connor sat slumped back with his eyes closed and head down, and now two bandages forearms.

With an automatic jolt of alarm, Hank realised he wasn’t breathing, but almost immediately recalled at least the fact that android stopped doing so in a situation where other processes needed more power, or some shit like that. Lucky he listened sometimes.

But, just in case…

Cautiously, he reached out and placed his palm flat against Connor’s chest, the way he had been shown. After a second, there was the unmistakable vibrations of the pump thingy.

Then he suddenly started breathing again, making Hank jump and hastily take his hand away. But Connor still seemed unconscious, if a little more comfortable – or at least, it made Hank feel a bit better to see him wrapped up and breathing regularly.

Anyway.

Shopping. Thirium. Two things that he could now devote attention to.

Hank shook his head in fondness, sighing under his breath about “fuckin’ androids”, though the words had a completely different meaning now to how he had once said it. He walked to the kitchen and rummaged in the cupboards until he found what he was looking for: a couple of bags of Thirium.

Leaving the liquid right next to Connor, he then quickly went outside to fetch the shopping, slamming the car shut and hurrying back inside with the two bags in record time.

He dropped them in the kitchen, glancing at Connor before starting to sort out the stuff they’d got, deciding to keep an eye on the kid and wake him to take the Thirium if he didn’t come round soon.

Fiddling with his phone, Hank set a timer for two hours.

\--

Connor woke slowly, head still pounding but most of the previous warnings gone, aside from MODERATE THIRIUM LOSS DETECTED.

He sighed and turned his head slightly, blinking in surprise at two Thirium bags right next to him. Even more surprising, a glance down showed his arms wrapped roughly in slightly blue-stained bandages. There was a whine from his feet.

Sumo, laying beside the sofa, was looking up at him with the most innocent gaze. The dog was calm and quiet, almost too much so, as though waiting for something. Connor remembered asking for him to be sent away in the midst of pain and fear when they’d first come in, and felt something else. Guilt.

Slowly leaning down, Connor patted the dog’s large head. Sumo thumped his tail on the floor twice.

“Sumo, what’re you—” Hank walked in from the bedroom, an irritated expression on his face that quickly morphed into one of worry mixed with relief.

“Connor, thank fuck,” he breathed, hurrying over. He just stood in front of the sofa for a minute, giving the kid a scan. Apart from still being pale and bandages around his arms, his LED was a mostly peaceful yellow and he seemed alert.

“Hank,” he greeted, straightening up with a wince.

The lieutenant held a hand out to stop him. “Nope. Don’t start apologising and all that shit. If fact, don’t do anything until you’ve vampire-d on that blood.”

Deciding it wasn’t prudent nor logical to argue, Connor simple nodded and clumsily picked up one of the Thirium packets to consume.

As he finished and Hank sat next to him gingerly, Sumo suddenly yawned and sat up. Connor jumped.

“Look, son, it’s okay to be afraid after something like that,” Hank spoke up, noting the kid’s stiffness. “It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t actually Sumo, it’s the fact that it happened and Sumo may remind you of it, which is totally normal.”

Connor was looking down thoughtfully, and slowly reached out a hand to stroke Sumo’s body as the dog panted with a smile.

He glanced back up at Hank, who was watching with an unusually serious expression, and smiled. “Thank you, Hank. Though Sumo has nothing to prove, I am sure he will try to redeem himself nonetheless. And so will I,” he added regretfully.

“Yeah, you’re both as fucking dumb as each other,” Hank muttered, rolling his eyes, but he smiled back, though his face also registered worry. “You feelin’ better now?”

The android considered for a moment, running a diagnosis. “My injuries aren’t completely repaired yet due to their extensiveness, but will be soon. Thirium levels are slight above adequate now.”

Hank nodded, a measure of concern leaving his face.

There was a comfortable pause as Connor stared curiously at Hank, who ignored him for a moment to see if he’d speak up, but when he didn’t, the man sighed and faced the other. “What?”

“Well, I have two questions, Lieutenant,” Connor replied immediately.

“It’s Hank. And shoot.”

The android blinked at him. “I do not wish to shoot you, and strongly advise you do not shoot yourself either.”

Hank resisted rolling his eyes or smiling. “Just, what do you want to ask.”

“I am wondering how long I was in standby for.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall. “About three hours. I didn’t know how long was okay, so I called Markus after two, and he said to give it up to five hours, based on the Thirium loss or something, apparently.”

“Oh.” Connor paused. “So we will have to visit Jericho soon to reassure him, I suppose.”

“Yeah, probably. Might have freaked the kid out a bit, I guess, but I was already freaking out so, y’know.” He trailed off, glancing away. Connor appreciated the admission enough to not press.

“I know you said not to, but I still must apologise for not remaining in the car where you asked,” he continued instead, looking at his folded hands in his lap. When there was no reply, he looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Are you not going to… tell me to listen to you?”

Hank sighed, but the fondness was there. “Son, I have long since come to the conclusion that there is no point arguing with your self-preservation of a fucking rock.”

Connor blinked, a smile tugging at his mouth.

“Thanks anyway, though. At least you apologise afterwards, I guess.” Hank rolled his eyes, “After being hurt, that is.” He sighed. “You’re going to be the fucking death of me, kid.”

“I certainly hope not, Lieutenant, since I have dedicated much of my behaviour to ensuring you live a healthy life.”

Hank waved him off. “It’s an expression.”

Sumo panted happily and moved to lay on both their feet, the large dog making it difficult to get up without disturbing him, something that neither of the men generally wanted. Not that either of them would admit it.

“Anyway, you should shut up and rest,” Hank said, reaching for the remote and turning the TV on, setting the sound to low. He glanced at Connor. “I’ll be here.”

Connor just nodded and settled back again, standby mode already calling him. The loss of Thirium and the damage meant that he did actually need to rest in order to regulate the internal body processes and fully repair the injuries.

He glanced down at his arms again, then at Hank.

“You are aware that androids do not require their limbs bandaged in order to repair damage?”

“Go the fuck to sleep.”

Connor smiled as he closed his eyes. “Thank you, Hank.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hank: does not use the word ‘kid’ one time in the entire game  
> fanfiction: everyone is kid to him fight me  
> (I’m channelling Victor Sullivan and I don’t regret a thing abt older men who fiercely love their adopted sons)  
> this got like super long and kind of dumb and I’ve literally been working on it all day bc only bits of it came at a time and then I couldn’t write anything, then I’d write another bit and just wow writing is hard. But it also gave me something to do at my little brother’s birthday party with screaming kids so there’s that.  
> Leaving a comment makes my day, including any requests you might have if you think my writing is acceptable! My request fic is Who We Really Are and is still open for suggestions!  
> Pls and thank  
> tumblr: strugglingbutstillfighting

**Author's Note:**

> This took way too long and I am certainly still out of practise and it's like 1am so I'm going to leave this here for now. I'll almost certainly do a part 2 because that'll be like actual first aid stuff and it's part of that so that's kind of important to include but I'm just so tired rn and I never know what endings are but this seems good enough.  
> Also I have actual work to do over the summer now since I failed two of my modules but like whatever it'll keep me busy. I passed the rest of them though! And then wrote this til midnight so idk how I feel abt that.  
> Anyway. Please leave kudos and comment etc., it's rlly nice to see and read. Thank


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